Ageless beauty: Anti-ageing make-up tips

Skin, and therefore your features, soften as you grow older. So a few changes to your make-up routine might be required to keep you looking your very best…

*Hormonal changes make skin drier, meaning it grabs moisture from foundation and leaves it looking dull and dry. Apply a light moisturiser before your base to counteract the problem.

* Flat, matte make-up absorbs light. And using it on ageing skin that might already be losing its light-reflecting tautness and starting to look duller is an unnecessary double hit of ageing. Add moisturiser to foundation or go for more liquidy formulations.

* Skin can also start to look a little greyer with age – particularly next to hair losing its pigment. So blush becomes a lot more useful than it may have done in the past. A little on the apples of the cheeks will make you look rosier, healthier and more youthful, while as skin loses a little of its firmness, cheekbones may also need defining. Add it to the tips of cheekbones to help lift the eyes.

* Eyes start to recede as we grow older and will also need defining, even if just with a smudge of grey or brown liner and a swash of neutral colour. But mascara does the most to make eyes stand out and thicken lashes as they, too, lose pigment.

* Straggly, thick brows can make skin over the eyes look more hooded. On the other hand, keeping them neat, with an arch two-thirds of the way through, lifts the whole face. Eyebrows lose pigment, too, so keep them defined with pencil or eyeshadow.